A few days of quiet and a little peace around here. Maybe the boys colluded and said, ‘hey, it’s Valentine’s Day and all, so lets give mom a break’. Whatever the reasoning, I’m on board. A few outbreaks of hitting, biting each other, but nothing that doesn’t occur in every home with 3 boys.

I love O’s sense of wonder and his extreme imagination. Yes, he can get stuck there sometimes, but I’m noticing that if I let him be stuck there and explore and come back on his own that he is better able to renter our world than if he is forced. He needs to explore that part of himself. He acts out life a lot through his little stuffed dog who he named, ‘Puff’. Puff gets scolded (by O), sent to time out, cuddled, potty trained, and most recently, he hatches eggs! A multi talented dog. Also, Puff used to be a boy, but now is a girl. Hmmm…how did that happen? I’m sure that in O World there is a very simple explanation for this. I kinda don’t want to know 😉

One of my least favorite parts of being a parent is that time of year called ‘SCIENCE FAIR PROJECT HELL’. Why, why, why do I have to do this every year? And, quite honestly, if I know that I’m going to be doing this all by myself, why don’t I get to choose?! I might chose something interesting like ‘how microwaves are poison’ or ‘the evil of plastic’. But nooooooooooo….this year we are dying white flowers green. Mr. Social Pants went on a trip with his friends so guess who is doing the data recording?  Yep…me! I have to admit that it’s much better than the ‘exploding maggots in the microwave’ or ‘growing maggots’ project of 5th grade. Incidentally, the exploding of the maggots never actually happened. No one wanted to forfeit their microwaves.

I’m reading about the different so called ‘cures’ for autism. I’m dragging my feet when I should be jumping in feet first. I should go to a DAN (Defeat Autism Now) conference. I so admire parents who have been able to plow ahead and move forward in this realm. I want to be on board, but I’m looking (maybe selfishly) at how much energy and time I have to expend. I want someone to come to me magically and present an entire program for O. I want them to tell me where we are at, what we need to do, and what the outcome will be. A kind mentor in this process told me that I need to treat this like I’m curing cancer and to act decisively and now in order to get the best possible outcome. She’s right! Maybe I should stop thinking about the ‘what ifs’ and just go for it. No gluten, no dairy…just try! Ooooohhhh…just thought of something. The perfect time of year for this kind of focused commitment…LENT. Could I motivate to start this in 2 days? Yes. Why not. Okay, you just heard it first, for Lent this year, we’re going no gluten, no dairy. Hook, line and sinker.